After years of being polio-free, Israel was shaken up by the discovery of a silent polio pandemic within its borders in 2013. The outbreak could’ve caused chaos if it had not been caught early. Their saviour? Sewers. In 1989, Israel established a national sewage surveillance system that monitored wastewater for the polio virus. It was this same system that discovered a budding resurgence of the dreaded disease. Experts are now exploring wastewater surveillance to track other diseases, like COVID-19, as wastewater reflects health trends days before cases spike. Read full article here
Research
Improving media literacy could boost trust towards the news, IMPRESS report suggests
The UK media is regulated by the likes of IPSO and Ofcom. The report by press regulator IMPRESS highlights the link between low levels of media literacy and trust in the news. The study found that three quarters of those who did not know if journalists were regulated did not trust the news. It suggests that improving media literacy is one way to stem the erosion of trust, and shows that audiences have an appetite for information on news processes. Stakeholders need to collaborate in order to rebuild trust in the news, and independent media is well placed to do this. Read full article here
Merv
February 1, 2023
